Dog bites are reaching "epidemic proportions," a well-known TV dog trainer said Thursday, as video of a cat fearlessly chasing off a dog that bit a small boy in California went viral.

Every year more than 4.5 million Americans -- more than half of them children -- are bitten by dogs, said the American Humane Association ahead of National Dog Bite Prevention Week, which begins Sunday.

Insurers paid more than $483 million in dog bite claims in 2013. Plastic surgeons performed 26,935 operations to repair injuries caused by dog bites. And the US Postal Service said 5,581 of its employees were attacked last year.

"The dog bite situation in America is at epidemic proportions -- in Europe less so, but still a huge issue," British-born dog trainer and television presenter Victoria Stilwell, host of the reality series "It's Me or the Dog," told AFP.

"Everywhere needs to take the situation very seriously," said Stilwell at a media event in Washington attended by Elle, a mellow therapy dog that happens to be a pit bull.

Stiwell appealed for greater education and awareness among dog owners and the public -- as well as better-trained dogs.

In a surveillance video going viral on YouTube, four-year-old Jeremy Triantafilo of Bakersfield, California is seen being attacked and badly bitten in the leg by a pit bull-looking dog.

But the dog immediately turns tail when Tara, the Triantafilo family cat since 2008, leaps to the defense of the mildly autistic lad, who was playing on bicycle on the sidewalk.

"Our cat saved our son!" his mother Erica Triantafilo, who was close by watering a tree, told ABC television affiliate KERO in Bakersfield, north of Los Angeles.

"It was truly amazing. She's my hero."

The boy needed several stitches to close the wound. The dog, which belonged to neighbors, was taken away by local authorities for quarantine. Tara was unhurt.

New Implanted Devices May Reshape MedicineDallas TX (SPX) May 15, 2014
Researchers from The University of Texas at Dallas and the University of Tokyo have created electronic devices that become soft when implanted inside the body and can deploy to grip 3-D objects, such as large tissues, nerves and blood vessels. These biologically adaptive, flexible transistors might one day help doctors learn more about what is happening inside the body, and stimulate the body fo ... read more

The content herein, unless otherwise known to be public domain, are Copyright 1995-2014 - Space Media Network. All websites are published in Australia and are solely subject to Australian law and governed by Fair Use principals for news reporting and research purposes.
AFP, UPI and IANS news wire stories are copyright Agence France-Presse, United Press International and Indo-Asia News Service. ESA news reports are copyright European Space Agency. All NASA sourced material is public domain. Additional copyrights may apply in whole or part to other bona fide parties.
Advertising does not imply endorsement, agreement or approval of any opinions, statements or information provided by Space Media Network on any Web page published or hosted by Space Media Network. Privacy Statement
All images and articles appearing on Space Media Network have been edited or digitally altered in some way. Any requests to remove copyright material will be acted upon in a timely and appropriate manner. Any attempt to extort money from Space Media Network will be ignored and reported to Australian Law Enforcement Agencies as a potential case of financial fraud involving the use of a telephonic carriage device or postal service.